Players from the Montreal Canadiens have won the award sixteen times; players from Boston Bruins are second with twelve winners, while the Edmonton Oilers have seen players win the award ten times. Joe Thornton became the only Hart Trophy winner to have switched clubs during his winning campaign during the 2005–06 season, having played for both the Bruins and San Jose Sharks that year. The defenseman with the most trophy victories is Eddie Shore, who has four. By contrast, it is rare for a goaltender to win the award, which has happened only seven times in its history; Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek is the only two-time winner.

The voting is conducted at the end of the regular season by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, and each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10-7-5-3-1 point(s) system.[3] Three finalists are named and the trophy is awarded at the NHL Awards ceremony after the playoffs. The closest the voting for the Hart Trophy has ever come was in the 2001–02 season, when Jose Theodore and Jarome Iginla tied in the total voting. The tiebreaker for choosing the Hart Trophy winner in such a case is number of first-place votes: Theodore claimed it, who had 86 first-place votes to Iginla's 82.[4]

In 2008, the NHL's official online shop came under criticism after they placed a T-shirt advertising Alexander Ovechkin as the award winner on sale a week before the results were revealed. A spokesperson for the league said "in an effort to offer our fans the merchandise they want in a timely manner following an event such as the NHL Awards, our licensees prepare product for all possible outcomes. In this situation, the link for one of the possible products became live early through an error by our e-commerce provider."[5] Ovechkin was later confirmed to be the winner.